Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1887-07-30
THE STAMBOUl BhZAR.
One OF the Strangest and Most Unique
Sights OF Turkeys Capital.

Sights OF Turkeys Capital.
And the bazar-the famous bazaar OF
Stamboul, which has employed the
brush of so many painters9 Yes, in
deed; a word must be said about it.
1t is sort of arched city, mystic
rioua, and never reached by the light |
Of LAY except through large lenses set
in the arched roof. Here people buy |
and SELL drink, and eat, and sleep, but
they do not live here. In this immense
confusion of passages, lined with small
shops. one may see little things that
glitter, and behold diminutive people
squat upon bench sleeping, as mo-
tionless as death, awaiting a purchaser
without attracting him, without call
ing him, and almost without desiring
him.
The bazar is the capital of bric-a-
brac. 1t is a tortuous confusion of
dark and yermin-infested passages,
where one would love TO ramble were
it not for the Jewish guides that harass
you. Every thing manufactured or
grown in the East is brought here, as
| if it were a storehouse. 1t is said that
certain shops, with an uninviting look,
conceal beautiful objects, possessing a
fabulous value. This may be true, but
these marvellous things are concealed
| The things to be seen, the things that
are exhibited are odd and peculiar,
but they are shabby and more often in
very bad taste. silk and woolen goods
in which the colors of the rainbow are
mingled, headgcar and footgear en-
broidercd with gold and silver, opera.
comique costumes, beautiful carpets,
inlaid weapons ornamented with pre-
cious stones, glittering jewelry in odd
forms-all these things are heaped VI
in picturesque disorder, and attract at
) tention on account of the extraordinary
opposition of colors.
Let us accord a special mention t.
the place for the druggists, sheltered
, in retired portion of the grand bazaar
| | All the aromas of the world find rem
dczvous in the pharmaceutical section
1 there they amalgamate and combin
1 with one another, and form a perfum
L that is complex, acrid, strong, intoxi
Y eating and indefnable; that befuddle
Q some and makes others sleepy, accord
| inc to the age and temperament. Th
:, bazar of the druggist is visited e:
5 pccially in times of typhus fever an
. cholera, for the Turks look upon tn
= promenades that they take there, an
n the lozenges that they eat, as the be'
h preseryativc against epidemics. More
+ over, the shopkecperS, with the fran
/. and naive sclfshncss of the Leyantine:
c give thanks to the beneiicent plagu
5 that sends them a crowd of patient
1t and customers, whose purses fear III
# ties quickly,
II shall not stop to speak of the bu
II lesque ceremonies of the bowling de
IS wishes, who, at Scutar, every Frida,
o roar with diStcnded throats, under I'll
/. pretext of sacred transports and divir
II frenzy; nor shall | speak of the exc
II cises of the turning dervishes, who, ;
|. the Tckc of Pcra every Tuesday, anu:
y cockneys and tourists by dizzying ev'
Q lutions. Il is difficult to take the'
queer ceremonies seriously; the less :
since they are the source of good re
cnues for those that practice them.-
Ep,;Ia T,Ilj1rJ io TnS,,,orOlit1u